Transformers Animated Season One Recap

where these infernal setbacks never end the revolution

begins now i got a vibe tells me i should be

sitting in on this scene for a while Hey, it's

David Kay, voice of Beast Wars Megatron and TFA

Optimus. You're listening to the Geek Cast Radio

Network. Jazz here, and I'm jiving to this episode

of Transformation Animation featuring Mike Blanchard,

Steven C. Phillips, and Michael Wilson. Sunday,

Sunday, Sunday. Hello and welcome to Episode

6 of Transformation Animation Podcast. I am your

host, Steve Jam and Mike, and joining me is Steve

Megatron. Hello. Good day. Pecan Court Michael,

hello. Hey. How's it going? It's going and making

a return trip from cybertron optimus solo. Holy

hell How did you afford that shuttle admission?

Actually, it wasn't as bad as you thought because

I got a discount if any of my body parts came

back on the wrong side of my body Well, what

happened is he got the priceline negotiator.

I Wonder what kind of transformer William Shatner

would be well, you know, they have made improvements

on the space bridge recently, so I got a good

deal. Today we're going to be recapping Transformers

animated season one. So what's going on with

you Kevin? Oh good god. Well life on Cybertron

is kind of boring at the moment. Not a lot of

stuff going on. Well it is a barren dead planet.

Yeah I've basically been walking around trying

to find something or someone for weeks now and

no luck. For a second there, I thought you were

going to say you've been trying to find someone

or something to do. Well, that too. But no, not

much going on on Cybertron. Sorry. What about

you, Steve? What's going on? Oh, Lord. I didn't

know how much you can stretch yourself until

you have no time to do everything. Yes, because

I'm working on several sites right now. One,

hopefully for money, and then between trying

to do little things at other ones. And been doing

somewhat like waiting for authorization behind

the voice actors contest thing that's coming

as far as what the hell's going on. Yes. Our

rampage for Darkglass is MIA. I contacted both

the backup and the regular, so they are officially

back on the market for people to audition for.

I tried that, and it doesn't turn out as well.

It comes out quite bad. On top of that, I've

been on Voices .com auditioning for many, many

things lately. I think I've done over 50 auditions,

got nothing yet. Some of them haven't been reviewed

and they haven't actually finished their things.

Some of them have. I'm in the middle of doing

20 more tonight. And then I'm also doing a bunch

of fan dubs that are more so like audio play

fan dubs based on Japanese anime, which I die

in every single rendition. So I have a ton of

lines and then a bunch of shrieking and getting

burnt up in ovens and like right now I'm doing

the Black Butler series which I had no idea what

the hell it was before getting into it and I

also was doing Phoenix Wright as one of the fat

old lawyers that's supposed to be nuts so I used

Master Roshi as the template But yes, so that's

what I've been doing lately other than that nothing

What's going on with the family Wilson there

Michael Dennis? Ha ha no We just started Fall

ball, which is like t -ball except in the fall

Yeah, so yeah, so he went out and got eaten a

new baseball bat today. He was all excited. Yeah

My company has already drank the Microsoft Kool

-Aid So they've been trying to prod me into a

SharePoint development for the last like six

months or so. And I finally broke down and went

to a SharePoint development conference. So I

spent the last three days there learning all

about SharePoint development. And that's oh,

so exciting. I'm on the edge of my seat. Yeah,

well at least you had a little bit more fun and

exciting stuff with Phineas and Ferb across the

second dimension We talked all about that in

the GCR episode. That's right That was a yeah,

we must have watched that show about ten times

just over the weekend And and then we had the

the podcast about it with Ryan Meade, you know,

that was interesting I mean, I hope that I hope

people listen to that The video version that

I put up on YouTube of of the mashup of images

with just the audio under the images it started

at Started like 10 views within an hour and went

up to like 75 views two days three days later

It's at nearly a hundred and seventy five views

nice So yeah, there is that but yeah super super

fun stuff I'm trying to sell a bunch of furniture.

I don't need on Craigslist Let's see trying to

sell these stupid books of poetry Actually getting

ready to move upstairs to Supposedly what's supposed

to be the best apartment in the building so I

won't be in this shithole anymore I'll actually

be in an actual apartment that I can actually

unpack crap in yeah So other than that, not much

else is going on with me, so I think we're gonna

take a break, you're gonna hear some audio, and

we'll come back with the recap of Season 1. So

we are back, and the way that each of us is gonna

do this is we've got three or four or five different

categories. We have favorite episodes, favorite

characters, so far in the series, favorite moments,

least favorite moments, least favorite characters

so far, least favorite episodes, and then our

overall thoughts. Why don't we let the Cybertronian

correspondent go first with favorite episodes

from season one just to see if he has any at

all. although the first time viewer does have

some favorite episodes. The first one, which

I don't have a lot to say about it, but I just

liked it overall, was episode, I believe it was

episode 11, Lost and Found. I just kind of liked

it. I liked the play between Blitzwing and Lugnut.

Megatron was cold and calculated in that one,

and it was just a fun episode overall. I mean,

it was nothing like Right Home About, but I just

liked it overall. Also, like the two -part Megatron

rising just because Megatron's rising I mean

come on I tend to like two -parters and I don't

know this one was good. You had a good interaction

between lug nut and Starscream You obviously

have Megatron making his Whatever you want to

call it return or turn so to speak So I really

like the two -part but overall my favorite episode

of season one and this should not come as a surprise

the thrill of the hunt I'm sure other people

will be able to talk about that one, but it just

had a lot of cool stuff in it. Yeah What about

you Steve? What are your favorite episodes from

season one? I Guess Megatron rising You didn't

write anything down did you I didn't write anything

down, but that's more so because I don't like

season one So, therefore, I'm going off the wiki

for reference points. And I would have to say

my favorite episodes are Megatron Rising because

Megatron actually gets back into the battle.

Good times. Yes. What about you, Michael? Well,

I'm gonna have to go with Thrill of the Hunt

for the triumvirate. Just because, you know,

it's Lance Henriksen. Yeah, he's and he's awesome

And we had a lot of backstory filled in Basically

we were tossed into yeah, we were tossed into

this crew And you know, they basically say off

the cuff. Well, we've never even seen a Decepticon.

It's like what the heck? Where where'd everybody

go? And now we find out about the Great War and

Ratchet's place in it and we got a Susan blue

appearance Yeah, you get Sue Blue thrown in there.

You know, you kind of come for the last henderson,

stay for the Sue Blue. And like I mentioned in

my, when we talked about this episode, the number

one reason why this is the best episode of season

one, no humans. Yeah, that doesn't hurt. I want

to say the other episode that didn't have any

humans was Along Came a Spider. Yeah, that was

decent. Yeah, well, you know, we get Alita One

who's insanely overpowered. And then she becomes

black arachnia who is even more insanely overpowered

It's and you know, no humans so hey kudos there

But yeah, I would say Megatron rising but you

knew it was gonna happen Yeah, you know Megatron's

head is going to get his body back. He's been

trying all season Not necessarily that was gonna

happen, you know in the season finale two -parter,

but you knew it was gonna happen eventually Yeah,

I mean for all we know hey that he's gonna stay

ahead than a jar for You know the remaining however

many seasons and then pop out just before the

series ends But no we get him at the end of season

one and you know, that's good enough for me.

I'll take that basically the I don't want to

say the the only ones that are any good besides

that or thrill of the hunt and along came a spider,

but they're they're two of the few Episodes that

this season that don't introduce human villains

Yes, and that's kind of in the the net the running

detractor as far as as far as what Hardcore g1

fans are concerned with Right. What about you

Mike? I like the three -part opening movie transform

rollout mega trend rising same reasons i really

love sound and fury just cuz it's sound wave

i like lots of parts of that and i dislike lots

of parts of that one well it's it's sound wave

i don't care that part was cool sound wave basically

He outranks any other bad part in that episode.

It would have been even better if he wasn't a

kid's play toy. Well, it was an interesting way

for them to introduce him instead of just have

him show up. That could have been like a light

post, you know? Oh, look, I'm Soundwave! Oh,

I'm here! Where'd he come from? I don't know!

Ta -da! There he is! Whee! It's been nice how

they introduced him, because it was like... Master

plan of Megatron or I'm gonna gonna introduce

this little guy and then he's gonna get bigger

And then he's gonna get bigger and then he's

gonna get bigger and then he's gonna be my new

body He's gonna be awesome. Check this out You

know, and it basically it doesn't work out for

him, which is kind of cool in and of itself Yeah,

it's like here's my new pair of pants. Wait,

he won't let me wear him The pants are walking

away without me. Ooh, this kind of sucks. Maybe

I can negotiate with the pants. Would you like

to, you know, join up with my head and what's

left of me? At least we have to control the zipper.

I used to be ahead of my time. Get in my belly!

Oh my god. So those are the best episodes of

Season 1, people. Yep, we're gonna move on to

favorite characters. I'm gonna start this one

off I really dig Blitzwing Just because it mainly

I dig the the crazy the random Blitzwing But

I like how his his alt modes are tied into his

personality and the Autobots eventually figure

that out and that's how they defeat him uh...

i like ratchet a little bit uh... he's growing

on me uh... optimus i like that they've taken

him and made him younger but haven't made him

as douchebag areas ron as prime was in g one

and of course you know megatron i mean It's Megatron.

He could be a head, he could be, you know, a

tank or truck. He could be anything. He would

still be menacing as all hell. This Megatron

is distinctly different from any iteration of

Megatron we've seen before though. True. I still

dig him. Yeah. Alright, so who are your favorite

characters then, Michael? For me, Ratchet really

stands out. Basically, you know because this

is the well, I don't want to say the first time

they've introduced the you know, the old medic

Previously, you know when you wanted to have

an Let's say a character that was Old and crotchety

and and had been been around and seen it all,

you know, you looked at cup Yeah, and here it's

like well, we don't have a cup but we can have

Ratchet be cup except. He's kind of dr. Cup That's

you know, but but this character couple of wheels

exactly, but this this Characterization keeps

coming up. I mean we see it again in the movie

You know the Bay movie we see it again in Transformers

Prime You know basically you got this old crotchety

doctor And you know the classic ratchet the g1

ratchet wasn't like that at all no And he was

kind of was more iron hide was more like the

yeah, exactly Yeah, I mean he wasn't iron. I

wasn't as old and crotchety as cop. No cup takes

the cake, right? But but yeah, I mean this ratchet

is more of a more of an iron hide than a ratchet

that's a theme for this whole show is they like

to bring in these new characters and Are these

same characters, but then give them a different

characters personality? Yeah, I like that. Optimus

Prime is Rodimus Prime. Ratchet is Ironhider

Cup. And then what was the other one I think?

Prowl was more like Hound. In my opinion. Yeah,

I'll buy that. Again, I think that they were

leaning more toward, you know, classic... What

do they call it? I don't want to say iconic characters,

but they're going for... Almost like a trope.

Almost the same tropes that they borrowed against

14 titans. You know, again, Humblebee being Beast

Boy and Bulkhead being Cyborg, etc, etc. But

the thing with Ratchet, though, is not only does

he start off with this new characterization for

him that persists over time since then, but he

also gets the best backstory. You know, he was

old, he's old now, but when he was young, he

was in the war. He was a, you know, field technician

or field medic and treating RC and fighting lockdown

and all these things. I mean, it's stuff that,

even stuff that hasn't been introduced yet, but

you know, he's been around, he's got a lot of

backstory. And he might get some of the best

backstory out of the whole series, to be honest.

And we've only seen a little bit of it yet. Not

to give too much away for Kevin, but yeah. Thank

you. Yeah, but no, I mean, he's probably one

of the standout characters. I agree. He's been

given the most attention so far as far as character

development. Out of the Autobots. What do you

think, Kevin? I tried really hard to come up

with an Autobot that I liked. Can't do it. I

really can't do it. I'll give like a half of

like to bulkhead and a half of like to ratchet.

um ratchet like for the reasons you just said

you know he's had the most character development

he seems like the most complex character so far

uh and i don't even know why i say bulkhead but

he doesn't annoy me as much as the other ones

do i guess not yet at least um if i had to hear

my bad so often right yeah if i had to pick my

three favorites they'd all be decepticons um

number three would be megatron Just because I

like this version of Megatron and it's just kind

of cool to see how he's developing. Second would

be Black or Acmea. Even though we just got the

one episode, it was pretty cool. The transformation,

I liked what they did with her backstory. My

favorite character so far is Lugnut. I can't

really explain it other than he cracks me up.

He legitimately makes me laugh in almost every

episode he's been in. And I don't know why but

he just strikes a chord with me. So look that's

my favorite character so far in season 1 I Don't

see him as being very comedic for some reason.

He makes me laugh The scene when the episode

where he's talking to Megatron, but Starscream

can't see him You can't see that. He's talking

to Megatron and he thinks he's talking to himself.

Like I don't know There are some very funny parts

in that See now I thought Starscream was funnier

on that one There's some really funny Starscream

moments. I mean Starscream's a little more comedic

than he really should be, but. I don't know,

I just like Lugnut. I can't explain it. Maybe

I'll be able to explain it later in another season.

We'll have to ask General Techno about that and

see what he says in the deep discussions about

the finer points of Lugnut. He takes obsession

to a whole new level, but anyway Steve, what

are your favorite characters so far? I would

have to say that my favorite characters are,

well, Optimus Prime. Just because it's a different

take on them. They've never gone this direction

with one before. They're always, you know, militaristic.

They know pretty much everything. And this one,

he's, you know, basically doesn't know shit.

He's useless. Which is refreshing. Say the least

I like ratchet just because the same reasons

you guys said crotch the old man And it's quite

nice to see I don't know you and I know they

carried over a lot of the animated characters

to TF prime and in some regards like ratchet

bulkhead bubble be in a sense, so I mean it's

it's kind of you know, they obviously get something

right in this show with those characters, but

uh And of course you can't go without saying

Megatron and Starscream are definitely... Starscream

of course is more G1 in this than some of the

previous renditions. But Megatron is definitely

something totally different that we haven't seen

in Transformers since Beast Wars. So I'd have

to say those are my favorite characters thus

far. getting into favorite moments for me in

Megatron Rising when Megatron just throws down

I mean he kicks the Autobots asses all over the

place that was awesome in the very beginning

of this season when Starscream sent Megatron

to his doom and then of course in Megatron Rising

when Megatron gets his revenge on him uh... the

you interrupted my speech line i love that it's

awesome the only good thing i will ever say about

bumblebee was when he was dressed up as the as

as the vampire and he was crawling all over bulk

and i thought that was a little bit funny uh...

anything with lockdown is is great what about

you steve favorite moments uh... Probably where

Soundwave got to hit the giant body. Yeah. Just

because it was weird seeing him go from this

itty bitty little drone to this gargantuan robot

that pulled tentacles to get machines to put

them together. Just that was kind of strange.

I like Megatron getting thrown back together,

of course. I like his 3D element that they had

basically showing his skeletal remains to Lugnut.

Yep I like primes freaking hammer when he goes

or not his hammer his His axe when he goes and

uses it against Megatron or just whatever It's

just I don't know. That's such a badass thing

that he's got this time around And my axe You

can kiss my axe I'll do a very good Gimli What

about you Kevin? What are your favorite moments

from season one? This is hard I had a couple

small ones that are just kind of more G1 nods

or whatever but uh, I liked what I'm calling

Hector Ramirez news reporter take I mean, that's

what it seems like to me I'm not saying that's

exactly what they intended to do, but he's appeared

a couple different times and I just remember

seeing him in the old school Transformers GI

Joe and you know a couple different other 80s

shows so that was kind of cool. The little appearance

of Krem Zeke. Yeah that was awesome. I liked

seeing that. Back from the first opening three

episode whatever you want to call it. The way

that they began working on bridges and at the

end of the episode they ended working on bridges.

I like full circle moments so I liked that. As

far as like some bigger moments obviously when

Megatron comes to life that's something that's

or comes into his new body that's kind of a cool

moment. My two favorite moments from season one

though number one would be like I said before

when Lugnut and Starscream were having the conversation

where Lugnut's talking to Megatron in his head

and Starscream doesn't know it I just think that's

a hilarious bit between the two of them. Then

the other one probably my and this is this might

be why I put bulkhead as one of my favorite characters

is just for this moment but when bulkhead has

no body Like the interaction between him and

bum will be well bulkhead has no body I I didn't

expect to like it, but I really liked that scene.

So that was probably my favorite moment of the

whole season I like the giant bulkhead head walking

around on the tiny little Tudor body Yeah. What

about you, Michael? What else did you like from

season one for Favorite Moments? I liked the

very brief appearance of Professor Princess.

God. I just dig this as a character. I didn't

actually do this. I was thinking about it. But

there's a scene in the Phineas and Ferb movie

where Isabella is writing a No, don't you even

dare! Shut up! Move on! She's riding a giant

rocket -powered unicorn. And I was actually going

to take a clip from that and put a little...

Don't even desecrate Phineas before Professor

Princess! Put a little mask on her and make her

look like Professor Princess. Do it! Do it! Send

it back to me! What do you think of Professor

Princess now? Because there's no way that he'd

be able to go. Oh, okay. Well, you can't diss

on Isabella What you doing? No way not to like

that. What else did you like? I liked I like

the scene of Bless the past where at the end

Grimlock transforms. Yeah, that was great I was

like, oh, okay. Cool. This is gonna be cool You

know I Yeah, I'd have to go with the old standby.

I liked it when Megatron got his body back the

whole reformatting and you know and you basically

Reformats the entire lab into his body and then

bursts out the roof and goes ha ha Your asses

are now line I like that a lot I I liked At the

end of along came the spider Where and Kevin's

gonna hate this, but I kind of liked it with

pride But that's just that but the whole reveal

I mean the whole episode they've been beating

it over your head She's a leader one, but when

it was revealed to optimus prime and he suddenly

recognized and said, oh my god, you're oh, oh

crap, you know That scene was really cool and

it just kind of lent a vulnerability to her and

then culminating at the end when she cries and

again she's totally able to cry because she has

an organic half you know and again you know she's

been through a lot she deserves to cry but it

was just so unexpected and it was really nice

and it was a nice chunk of character development

for her and it's too bad that we don't see much

more of her until much later yeah I only have

two least favorite moments because the least

favorite moments weren't even in the script until

Kevin said oh I added them. Bumblebee's hard

character I just I know he gets better but I

just cannot stand him in season one and this

show kind of goes to prove that power corrupts

absolutely. Anything with the key enough said

I mean seriously That is an understatement I

I have perused Oh, God. All of my notes. We do

not want to be here all night, so you need to

keep it to a top ten list. No, no, I don't have

any money. I've perused all my notes, and I have

come up with the, for sure, worst moments of

season one. And they're just small moments. You

already talked about any moment involving the

key, but the creme de la creme was the keyhole

in the toilet. A terrible moment of season one.

We've already had feedback on that and it proves

beyond a shadow of a doubt that there should

be a keyhole in the toilet. Yeah, just everybody

needs a toilet key. And for listeners who may

have just started listening to this show, first

of all, go back to episode zero and start from

the beginning. Second of all, if you want to

get the... The context of what Michael just said

go back to episode 5 and listen to what was the

episode? The one with the Dinobots and meltdown

Yeah, no Survival of the fittest that's what

it was My second one would be the entire wrestling

match that Bumblebee is involved with Yeah Third

would be and like I said in the when we talked

about this episode. It's the history teacher

in me, but the incorrect Alignment of calling

it dinosaurs from the Jurassic period and then

showing a bunch of dinosaurs that are not from

the Jurassic period That bugged me Another one

would be a dog named spark plug That rock And

my last one would be Blackarachnia crying. It's

not because she didn't deserve to have an emotional

moment. It was because of the actual tears coming

out of her eyes. Because she's not half organic?

Still. Would you rather she cried like webbing

or something? No, I'd rather she not cry. I'd

rather she like broke down to the point like

maybe she like went to a knee or maybe she like

kneeled down or maybe she like Showed emotion

in a way other than crying would have been fine

for me It goes to another point which I'll bring

up later, but those are my least favorite moments

What about you Steve least favorite moments?

Yeah Any moment that a human appears Okay, well

the only exceptional the only exception I make

to that is spike and Carly Any moment he is involved

any moment a human appears any moment I think

I smell a drinking game here. Oh god. Transformers

animated, the drinking game. Take a drink. But

yeah, that's that and the fact that this season

is overall the least interesting part of the

entire three seasons. Alright, so... You already

went didn't you Michael for least favorite I

don't think it did. No You have any least favorite

moments? I liked them all He has been totally

good. Yeah up until we get the least favorite

episodes, I mean individual moments I liked everything

episodes and there's some that shine more than

others and some that don't shine at all Yes getting

into least favorite characters for me a bumblebee

I said a second ago he's just a dick that's all

it is bulkhead why did they create this character

for the show why couldn't they have brought in

like a prowl Or well, no, we have why can they

run like a blue streak or a sunstreaker and sideswipe?

You know anything but bulkhead. I mean, I do

agree with that point I always hate it when you

have a library of hundreds of characters why

you have to invent a new one Yeah, well again,

I think it it's because of the You know the tropes,

you know, you have to have your beast boy, you

know, you have to have your giant hulking guy

who's But out of the hundreds of characters that

were in Transformers, the original, there wasn't

any that fit that mold. That's what I can think

of. Well, Warpath. I know it comes later, but...

But what Michael is saying is because most of

the creators, or most of the crew on this were

on Teen Titans, that's where Bumblebee and Bulkhead

is. No, I'm just saying, I think Bron or Warpath,

I know some of them make a little appearance

later on, but they could have been main characters

in this form. Oh, yeah. I could totally see a

Bron, actually, but he's, at that point... Well,

actually, at that point, they had already lost

the copyright, the trademark to Braun, so they

would end up having to call him X -Bron again.

Something like that. True. Like in robots in

disguise. But I don't think I would have been

happy to have classic G1 Braun be portrayed as

kind of dopey and clumsy. Yeah, you know you

would just throw out like if you didn't use you

would throw out that entire character you would

use Whatever other characteristics you know I

would say no because there's these character

tropes that they're adhering to What about they

want they want the big dopey strong guy? What

about the green construction vehicle guy? Yeah,

lost my mind on not hoist, but uh oh Yeah, no

hoist was the green one was he yeah yeah grapple

was the yellow was good uh... pral pralines to

stop throwing his beliefs all over the fucking

place promised to be renamed mirage hound uh...

accepted a mirage if they would have been a lot

i was supposed to be the fricking like the the

militaristic guy the group he's supposed to be

the pool well he is a police motorcycle but he's

supposed to be the he's supposed to be the policeman

of the group uh... and finally for me least favorite

characters i will never like this character i

don't care how many other people like it i don't

care if there is one fanboy out there that obsesses

over in the gas to have like for six different

total formers of the same damn character uh...

lug nuts i fucking hate lug nut is constant pontificating

all my god so wrong I would gladly deal with

Inferno saying my queen every five seconds than

fucking Lugnut. Okay, tell us how you really

feel. I just did. Get it all out. You have least

favorite characters. Least favorite characters,

I could almost list all the Autobots. But mostly

Prowl, only for the fact that that is one of

my favorite characters of all time in the Transformers

history, and this is not Prowl. They should have

named him something else. Bumblebee, like you

said, is a jackass. And I hate Rodimus Prime

in this. You mean Optimus. Oh, I'm sorry. Optimus

Prime. Yeah. As far as Decepticons, the only

one I can't stand is Blitzwing. And that's mainly

because he's the only one most people like. I'm

so distracted by when he talks to try to come

up with what accent he's trying to do in that

one. face because it's nothing I've ever heard

in my entire life. And I like, I like the story

about how he got his alt modes and I like that

he has different faces with different voices,

but something about him bugs the shit out of

me. I don't know. I'll take a long night over

Blitzwing any day. It should have been Astrotrain.

God damn it. But anyway, um, Steve, least favorite

characters. Hey, um, I don't like Bullkin. I

don't like Bumblebee. I don't like Blitzwing.

I don't like Lugnut. I don't like the Dinobots.

Why are you watching the show again? I hate the

humans because better times come. Let me see.

I changed my least favorite characters to every

human hero or like one off. person that they

brought in. The villains. Yes, the human villains.

You can't make it a blanket, all humans, because...

Okay, I hate all human villains. Except for Flossus.

No, the construction vehicles, the construction

workers are awesome. Amethyst Black was alright.

Yeah, he was cool. I hate all the villains of

the humankind. I don't like Sarky. Spiken, Carly,

and Daniel. I can deal with that, they were a

one -shot. Sparkplug the dog. They keep coming

back. They keep coming back, but they don't really

serve a purpose. They don't do anything. They're

just like there for window dressing, but it's

cool to see them. Yes. But yeah, I think those

are the characters I hate so much. This list

will grow. Wow. Michael, least favorite characters

from season one? I don't know. You know, I hate

to say it, but I'm not terribly fond of bulkhead.

No, most of them are. Think none of us are just

because he you know, he is I like him a TF prime

I liked him if they would have just kept him

with just the head He was ahead of his time so

basically if Kevin Michael Richards had had done

the voice here much more Yeah, if he wasn't constantly

tripping over himself. Yeah, he wasn't playing

Patrick from spongebob I could Get past him and

see that's that's one of the coolest thing, you

know regardless of bulkheads characters His characteristics.

That's one of the coolest things about this show

Patrick is not a bot spongebob is a decepticon

Yes, I'm I'm kind of bothered by The Dinobots

that not so much Grimlock is he actually speaks.

They're cool robot forms that are wasted. What

exactly it's like why Again, why are they even

there? Is that where the whole thing about having

characters not talk started? In the Transformers

history? I don't think so. There are fantastic

episodes of Samurai Jack that are awesome. No,

I mean the Transformers characters that don't

ever speak. Oh, I don't know. I hope not. I don't

recall that ever happening in G1 or Beast Wars.

Think it wasn't until the movie where it's like,

oh we can't afford a voice actor for bumblebee.

So Old Star Trek, you know I Interrupted your

last year your next pick though for a character.

I'm sorry Michael. I'm sorry. Who'd they say

something after Whatever we just talked about

Oh, no, I was talking about the Dinobots and

the fact that two of them don't even speak and

in the rise of Megatron 1 they make it a point

to reveal to Optimus Prime that they're alive

still and go to the island and they try to recruit

their help and not only do most of them not speak,

but they don't actually do anything. Yeah. Mean

it's they don't they don't show up at the end

and let and pitch a hand against Megatron despite

the fact that they're on Dino Bot Island So it's

like why do they even introduce them here? I

shouldn't say that why they even show up in Megatron

rising at all and secondly why the hell don't

they talk? Agreed Yeah, so that's that's my main

you know kind of nitpicks There's really not

enough Decepticons to really complain about them

Yeah, I mean I don't hate lug nut with quite

the ferocity that blanchard does uh you know

i mean honestly they show up in what two episodes

yeah i don't think it's that big of a deal really

uh starscream shows up more often but i like

starscream yeah starscream's good yeah i mean

he's not my favorite but you know i i dig him

fair enough yeah that about covers it oh as long

as we're covering uh You know worst characters

there. I want to throw a nanosec Yes, he is the

number one. Maybe yeah Season yeah Number one

number one worst character. I like some of the

other I mean, I'm not a total human villain hater.

I like some of the other ones. I kind of dig

angry Archer You know just because he's just

he's a unique character. It's really cool It'd

be easy to say oh, well, that's Green Arrow,

but no, he talks like a Renfair reject. It's

awesome. Again, I like Professor Princess. She

was in there all of two minutes, and for some

reason, everyone hates her for it, because she

distracts from the rest of the episode. It's

like she had two minutes on screen. I don't see

the big deal. But Nanosek had the entire episode,

and he was just kind of annoying. I was kind

of hoping he'd die at the end, really. But he

did in my mind. Yeah, he may as well back. He's

dead in my mind. So that's okay He's dead in

my mind. So that's okay. Well, he comes back

which is reincarnated He cloned him He's like,

what was his name? Nino Sexton the second. Yeah

Nino Sexton mark to you know second second. What

did you want to say Kevin earlier? Nothing Um,

moving on to least favorite episodes, um... Ooh,

ooh, ooh. Wait, wait, wait. You cannot say all

of them. Wait. For me, my... I just have four.

Number four would be Nanosek. That's a third.

That's a third of the episodes you didn't like.

I had mine put down at two. Well... I'm not spending

too much time on these damn things. So number

four would be NanoSec, number three would be

Headmaster, number two would be Survival of the

Fittest, and the number one worst episode in

the entire season, Nature Calls. Disagree. What?

You like Nature Calls? No, I disagree that that's

the worst episode of the entire season. No, Nature

Calls is the worst episode of the entire season.

I don't know about that. NanoSec might be the

worst episode. I have... There's so many... Pieces

of shit, but there is two that smell worse than

the rest My second worst is a total meltdown

that I hated that episode. There was so many

problems with that episode the writing dialogue

was terrible They had a wrestling match with

transformers involved and there was just inconsistencies

in the plot. I didn't like it. I Like the villain

That is the best human villain that we've had.

But it's tarnished by the rest of the episode.

But no, the worst, hands down the worst episode

of the entire season was Nanosek. I don't even

want to talk about it because it'll make me mad.

Steve, where's least favorite episodes? Least

favorite episodes? Yeah. You want me to list

them? You cannot say all of them you must have

some favorites in there somewhere, but yeah,

like I don't know top three least favorites,

okay nanosec and Headmaster That was also awful.

Yes. I like headmaster boo And Home is where

the spark is Yeah, I can agree with that Mike.

How is when nature calls worse than nanosec?

nature calls is worse because that's prow and

Everybody's saying you have to you know that

that's the whole message of nature versus technology

and saying that oh my god What if you never had

these machines anymore? What would you do and

it's like stop pushing your beliefs on us? God

damn it I think I struck a chord No, not really

Michael least favorite episodes from season one

I'm gonna have to run out of consensus with nanosec

You're alone Blanchard With the exception of

maybe introducing another human villain nanosec

really didn't do anything to progress the story

I mean, it's just another one of Megatron's attempts

to regain his body the fail I I want to say the

only redeeming factor of that is that Bumblebee

gets his booster rockets Which look really cool

on the toy Yeah, you know and he hasn't had them

before or after You know, but it's like hey,

they're on the toy which means we have to somehow

get them on his body in the cartoon So they throw

this whole giant seeming piece of crap story

around the booster rockets to get them in there

And I want to say Nature Calls is a bad episode

too, but there's one thing that redeems Nature

Calls, and I'll sum that up in two words. Zombie

robots. You know, when the space barnacles get

them and they turn into zombies, that is awesome.

I like that. I don't like how they resolved it.

I don't like how they got to that point. But

I dig the zombie robots. Nature calls is one

of those episodes that I can't put it as my worst

episode because I almost just ignore that it

happened because It was seems like so pointless

to me, but but it didn't piss me off like nanosec

did Yeah, and at the end they find Megatron's

body. So Megatron Yeah, after like four attempts

finally gets a body. Yeah Which leads us to the

end of the season which did rock? Yes So Kevin

overall thoughts season one. All right Transformers

animated season one. I obviously came into this

like most people did back in the day when it

first aired, worried about the designs and worried

about the look. I've gotten used to the look

of the actual transformers. The look of the humans

still sucks to me. I just don't like the designs

on the humans. I don't like the way they make

them look. I do like the... The backgrounds and

some of the scenes and stuff like that something

about the humans I don't like I don't like I

know I mentioned this before and I think Michael

responded I don't like the anime hyperdrive look

that happens when we go to fight each other I

know that's a staple of anime but I can't stand

it when it's just all different colored diagonal

lines in the background and then a Transformer

in the foreground. I don't like that It almost

seems lazy really. It's like why couldn't you

have some of the background in there and like

you could blur the background you could do something

crazy with the background, but just to put diagonal

lines of color? I don't know. So those are my

biggest issues with the look of it. As far as

actual storytelling and whatnot, like I said

with black or acne or crying, my major problem

so far is the human traits that the Transformers

have. We've seen them sleep, we've seen them

cry, I think we've seen them eat and drink. I

don't know. It doesn't bug me enough that I would

like... Stop watching the show, but they're just

minor things where we've never seen this type

of stuff before and I just don't know how I feel

about it yet I may grow to like it, but I'm undecided

at this point. I guess There's a couple times

going back to the look where the transformers

look like they're made of rubber instead of metal

With the way they bend and the way they move

that bug me There's the consistent use of let's

just throw a random plot line or a plot background

like a Halloween or birthday party or this event

or that event well halloween i will say had a

specific point no i understand the point but

it just seems like they're coming up with all

these different like events or special days and

then throwing a transformer story around it which

seems lazy to me I love the way they've done

the backstory so far. They haven't done a lot

of them, but I love what we have gotten for backstories

with Blackarachnia and Optimus Prime with a ratchet

and lockdown and stuff like that. So the backstories

have been excellently done for the most part

so far and I love that. I guess the only other

issues I have, number one, the whole Autobot

alloy and dystonium. I don't want to get into

it, but I just don't like the fact that we're

saying that Autobots and Decepticons are made

of two different things. Well, now, I did think

about that when you said it originally. I didn't

think of this. If you go back to G1 and you go

back to, I think it's Five Faces of Darkness

where the Quintesson... You're not going to quote

me Five Faces of Darkness. Hold on. Hold on.

When Rodimus goes back into the Matrix, they

say the Autobots were one product line. The Decepticons

were another product line. So think of it as...

They're still made of the same metal, though.

I don't know the toys are all diecast come on

And my biggest my biggest problem is the last

thing I'll say about season one and the main

reason why I don't like season one besides all

the humans and the key was the whole setup of

sorry being the guardian of the key it just bugs

me as a Central aspect of the entire story of

season one that you have a little girl holding

the most important piece of Cybertronian equipment,

or whatever you want to call it. And I'd hate

how they handled it where they finally wised

up and said, maybe one of the Transformers should

watch that, which is what they should have done

to begin with. And then they write that into

the story that that's how Megatron gets the key,

is when the Transformers are finally protecting

the key instead of Sari. I just don't like that

whole spiel. But what if she's not a real little

girl? I don't care, it's still stupid. Steve

overall thoughts season one agree with Kevin

You cannot cop out like that. I can to cop out

Michael anything to add I agree with Kevin Actually

I I have something I want to throw out there

too is that You know people complain about I

want to say people I'm looking at Kevin people

complain about the the way that some of the characters

look like the human characters uh maybe the way

they're animated they don't look right you know

when they're like sorry half her head is like

her mouth you know yeah and i i kind of get it

that that's the style especially if you if you're

a fan of the teen titans you know that's the

style right you're used to it by now it's not

you know quite as anime as the teen titans but

it's close yeah But the saving grace for the

art here is the backgrounds. All the backgrounds

are fully realized. They're all painted. It's

gorgeous. Just really, really good stuff. And

it can be a little disconcerting when you have

the maybe rubbery transformers in front of these

gorgeous backgrounds. That's, I think, a major

problem. Yeah, and sometimes you don't even notice

it but if you just for yeah after like the fifth

viewing right you just Forget that the robots

are there that the people are there and you look

behind them. It's really sharp I forgot one other

thing I want to throw in there too that I really

like and I'm agree I agree with everything Michael

just said another thing that I really like was

is the weaponry use so far in season 1 I like

primes axe and his bolus and and some of the

other weaponry that's being used I do like that

Megatron swords are kick -ass. Yeah, I haven't

seen any weapons that I haven't liked Yeah, I

like the fact that the weapons are integrated

Yeah, in a sense and it kind of reminds me back

of uh, oh Damn it. I can't remember his name

now the writer The one who basically said that

if you're if you are a weapon you don't need

to have weapons Flint Billy no, no, no, no, he

wrote for uh, go for peace wars Oh, it's either

Larry DiTullio or Bob Forward. No, no, no. Marv

Wolfman? Oh, the other guy. There's not too many

more that have major roles in Beast Wars. Unless

you're talking about Robert Skewer from Beast

Machines. Bob Skewer. Yeah, okay, I'm sorry.

My apologies to Bob Skewer. I totally blanked.

Yeah, Bob was the one who said... If you are

a weapon, you don't need weapons. If you can

turn into a tank, you don't need a gun. Or if

you can turn into a gun, you don't need a gun.

Exactly. Something like that, yeah. But basically

you don't see Bumblebee hefting around a bazooka

because he can slam his arms together and make

stingers. Although I will say the gun that Optimus

Prime carried around in the last live -action

movie was pretty kick -ass. Did he carry that

gun around or was I don't know but he dropped

it at the end after he used it and that thing

was huge the giant Gatling guns No, he had the

he had his regular gun his g1 style. Whatever

you want to call it shotgun rifle thing Yeah,

but he had these big old Gatling guns hanging

off his arms. I thought that's a little bit Yeah,

then he had some massive weapons, but I'm getting

us off track Well later on in you know, that's

a spoiler but Prime gets some pretty cool weapons,

too But he's got a lot of weapons. He's got his

axe. He's got his Foam sprayers, he's got Yeah,

you got a bullet, you know, I don't really consider

bolas to be a very good weapon I just like it

because it reminds me a panther on thundercats

Okay, how about that? Sure two points to the

thundercats or not panther, excuse me, tiger

and the original thundercats my bed Oh, no, see,

I didn't like that. Tiger had like a whip type

of thing that looked like a set of nuts. Somebody

had the bulls with the balls at the end of the

rope thing or whatever it is. Yeah, I don't remember.

I think it was panther. Oh, I got to watch. Yeah,

the panther had numb. No, but he they were getting

off track here, but they all had secondary weapons.

I guess panthro had the nunchucks, but I think

he also had the bolos because panthro was the

one that invented all the damn things genius

Yeah, Papa Cosby. There we go. Okay, so there's

that That's awesome. Okay. All right back on

track here. Um, what we talking about? i don't

know final thoughts on season one yeah i totally

agree with kevin i know kevin doesn't like that

this optimus is young and he's more rodimus type

uh... but i don't agree with that I kind of like

that they went with a younger Optimus, and they

did it a little bit differently. He does have

his own backstory. I could stomach the younger

Optimus if he didn't have his pity parties like

Rodimus used to. That's my problem. They're not

nearly as bad as Rodimus. Like, entire episodes

where I'm not as good as Optimus Prime. Yeah,

it wasn't quite that bad. Oh, it was. Yes, it

was. No, I'm saying this one isn't quite that

bad. We'll see, and that's the thing. At the

very beginning of this episode, the only time

this season that we see the hierarchy of Cybertron,

that being Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime, the

dick that he is, the only time that we see the

hierarchy in this series is the very beginning

of the episode, and the only thing Ultra Magnus

says to Optimus is, don't try to be a hero, Optimus,

it's not in your programming. I mean, that's

really the only thing, so you don't have this

Optimus... You know, going around like Rodimus

did in season 3 in Rebirth saying, oh my god,

I suck. You don't know, there's just little hints.

He's not nearly as emo. But it comes across in

his leadership style where everything he says

is kind of halting, like, okay, um, all right,

guys, we're gonna, we're gonna do this, right?

When Sari's giving direction. Yeah, Sari's leading.

And he's like, all right, guys, um, all right,

let's do this, okay? Yeah? I mean, it's clear

that he's a very young leader. He has a ways

to go. They've stated already, you know, he is

an Academy bot. They haven't actually explained

how he washed out or why he washed out. And again,

that's a lot of backstory that comes later. But

no, I appreciate the differences, the liberties

they took with these characters and how different

they made them from, you know, G1. And I don't

have a problem with that at all. I mean, I like

this new Optimus. Yeah. Maybe I'll grow to like

him. The animation style for me, just in general,

there are certain aspects, like when I'm really

looking for issues with it, there are certain

aspects that I cannot stand. Like, I found a

screenshot that the animation is so awful. The

modeling on Bumblebee in car mode is just, he

looks like he's a scrunched up Volkswagen. That's

what he looks like. but in general I don't dislike

it there are certain things you know sometimes

the explosions are a little bit too much but

other than that the style of the animation is

great and I think that throughout this series

as we go along even though we may have one or

two one -off episodes the overall story of these

Autobots, of these Decepticons, it ties all back

together. By the time season three and all the

continuity and all the backstories start happening,

it really made me look back at these first 16

episodes and really see, oh yeah, I can see that

now. Okay, that's cool. Especially the next season.

You see you once you watch it you look back and

you see where all the building blocks were laid

ahead of time in season one You can see how everything

plans or was planned ahead and the only thing

and I said this last episode the only thing I

wish that they would have done with this season

is have Megatron rising part one be the season

finale and Just have it end on the cliffhanger

of oh shit Megatron is alive. He's in the sky

and just end it because part two it picks up

and it resolves itself immediately and then when

we jump into season two next time you know it's

like oh well all this happened and all that happened

and that's great but i just i just didn't feel

like there was enough of a cliffhanger for season

one there's no sense of urgency at the end yeah

not at all i agree but considering that There

was no six month gap between season one and season

two. It's like, okay next week season two. Yeah,

that's that's true Steve anything to add before

we go to the ads and all the breaks and all that

stuff Nope transformation animation podcast.

We'll be back after these messages Hey, Tara

strong here and you're listening to the geek

cast radio network No, there will be no operation

interference I am TFG1 Mike and you should be

listening to my very first podcast the TFG1 podcast

24 episodes covering the entire US run of the

1984 Transformers cartoon I also have a few supplemental

episodes and an interview with Stan Bush I bring

in guest hosts who will be full -time co -hosts

in Steve Megatron and fan of the show now co

-host Pecan Court Michael So check out the TFG1

podcast. You can find it on iTunes and the web

at www .geekcastradio .com. Transform and roll

out! Welcome to my throne of future tales. The

Beast Unleashed podcast is over, not gone. You

can hear more of this great podcast discussing

all the episodes of Beast Wars Beast Machines

on GeekCastRadio .com. We include voice actor

and writer interviews with stellar hosting by

Steve, Mike and Michael. Head on over to iTunes

or the Net or else I will send you my vehicles

to extract your spark and destroy you. Now back

to transformation animation. That's right. We

are back and before this episode we recorded

it today Michael did his own video mashup of

transformers meets jigsaw. What the hell did

you do? I was listening to you know, the previous

podcast that we did Specifically the one for

home. It's where the heart is or home is where

the spark is It was also where the heart is Yeah,

exactly. Home is where the saw is. But the scene

where Megatron is taking over the warehouse and

is basically immobilizing all of the Autobots

and basically trying to kill them, there's a

scene where Bulkhead is grabbed by the pincher

arms and put on a conveyor belt when he's going

to get his head smashed. And the comment that

I had made was, you know, how did Bulkhead end

up in a saw movie? And I thought, well, how cool

would it be if I took, you know, Jigsaw and stuck

him in there and said, you know, Bullcat, I'd

like to play a game. Uh, you know, so I thought,

you know, this shouldn't be that hard to do.

It probably took me about three hours to put

together. And the sad thing is I didn't start

until like 11 o 'clock. So it was really, really

late by the time I got done with it. And, uh,

and then I ended up going back and re -editing

it and it took more time and I was really tired

after. But it turned out nice. It turned out

funny. Yeah, it was pretty funny. Yeah, it was

a bit of a surprise, you know, cuz it's like,

okay I've seen this episode. I know roughly where

this falls into place What's gonna happen? What

makes this different? And then boom is jigsaw.

He's like, oh man. Oh, no way And I kind of I

kind of threw a twist in there and killed Bumblebee

too. That's excellent Yeah, I dug it. I thought

it was cool You know probably Nobody but us is

actually going to see it. I will put it in the

post. I will link it in the post. God, if we

ever get to interview Bumper Robinson, he's going

to hate us. He's going to hate you. Bumper, you've

been a dick for like an entire season. Thought

you were joining us here on transformation animation

podcasters always in contact with us to leave

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The short in there is TFA podcast mine is TFG

on Mike. What is your Twitter Steve? SCP 21 Michael

Pecan CT Michael Kevin optimus solo Yes Become

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line and tell us to show you the message for

and your name, 502 -526 -5821. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Transformation Animation Podcast.

We wish you'll join us next time when we'll be

reviewing the first three episodes from Transformers

Animated Season 2. Those being, The Elite Guard,

The Return of the Headmaster, and Mission Accomplished.

Oh, God. Yes, you called? This is where it gets

good. This is where it gets cool. Return of the

Headmaster scares me, but okay. Son of a bitch!

At a point, you piece of shit. For now, I am

TF2 and Mike with... Michael Wilson. And Optimus

Solo. And Steve Megatron Phillips. And we'll

tap you again next week. Ew. Oh god, worst trainwreck

ever. Burn toast! Okay, what's his malfunction?

Technical glitch. It happens. A lot actually!

It is no longer glitch. It is Megatron and he

commands us to deliver him the key. Megatron!

Did you just say Megatron? Did he just say Megatron?

There is no Megatron! Megatron is offline! Terminated!

I did it myself! Saw it myself! You interrupted

my speech!